The present invention relates to the physical objects which are communicatively linked to a network and, more particularly, to an Internet of Things.
With the recent advent of the Internet of Things, more and more real-world devices are becoming connected to the Internet. In this way, many devices are now able to send and/or receive relevant data for a multitude of purposes. For example, U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2014/0064232 described describes “communications between machines”. U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2014/024470 describes an “interworking procedure between social media service” and a “machine to machine (M2M) service”. International Pub. No. WO 2014/193150 describes “a system comprises a plurality of devices that include an intermediary node that communicates with at least some of the plurality of devices via a network”. WO 2014/193150 also describes “systems that can aggregate data at an application-protocol layer”.
Current solutions, however, do not leverage the Internet of Things to enhance customer service provided by an enterprise, and partners of the enterprise, at different service locations. For example, if a person visits a car dealership to look at vehicles, a sales associate may interact with the person and collect various types of information, such as the person's name, address, the type of vehicle the person is interested in, etc. The sales associate may even enter the person's information into a contact management system. Contact management systems, however, typically are only accessible by employees of the enterprise that owns the dealership. If the person does not find a vehicle he/she likes, and chooses to visit another car dealership owned by another enterprise, that other car dealership is not able to utilize the person's information collected at the first car dealership to optimize the vehicle selection experience for that person. Thus, many opportunities to sell vehicles are lost.